LECTURE

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12796, 30 September 1905, Page 4

LECTURE

QUEEST ALEXANDRA'S COUNTRY.

I'D assist the Xirnaru Main School scheme of decoration and education by m.eans of gardening, a lecture was given in the .Assembly Eooms last night. The lecturer was Mr 0. T. J. Alpers, and the subject, Queeu Alexandra's Country." There was a very good attendance, and among the audience was a contingent of the elder, boys from the school, who proved very interested listeners. The' entertainment resulted in about £lO being added ta the funds, for the garden scheme. Mr J. A.Johnson occupied the chair, and introduced Mr AJpers. He particularly thanked him for his readiness in responding when asked to assist. Alpers made a few remarks upon the excellence of the object of the entertainment; the knowledge of cultivation and a lore of outside life was of as much value as knowing the date of the Battle of Hastings or how many ounces there were in a pound lroy. Denmark, the subject of the lecture was, he said, interesting to the audience as Queen Alexandra's countrv, and to him as the land of his birth and his childOnce a land of importance, Denhad shrunk in area and in importance till now its modest ambition jg the supplying of butter for the tables and princesses for the thrones of Europe. A brief sketch of the Royal Family showed how the Banish House had spread into the European Courts, till the late Queen was known as "the mother-in-law of Europe." Denmark is . but little known, especially among the English epeaking, save through the medium of . Hamlet," Unfortunately, the impres-

sions left by the play are not altogether creditable, and worse "still, they are apparently borne out by statistics. Hamlet was " the melancholy Dane " ; ergo, all Danes are melancholy. Yet not so; of all the European races, 110 other spends so much in seeking the mere pleasures of life, or is of more optimistic disposition. Yet their very insouciance leads to their statistical undoing. The man over 60, sated with the pleasures at his hand, seeks out a rope and puts an undignified end to his no longer amusing existence. Hence Denmark shows more suicides per thousand than any other nation. Hamlet left his race a reputation for insobriety. Yet though all the best cherry-brandy of the world is made in Copenhagen's 400 distilleries, it *is nearly all drnnk in England, and Denmark remains sober. Neither is there, in spite of Hamlet's assertion to the contrary, " something rotten in the state of Denmark." Mr Alpers spoke at length upon the fine democratic government of the nation. New Zealand, among the foremost in making democratic experiments, was, in every case but that of women's franchise, anticipated by Denmark. No sovereign, in Europe has so simple a position as the Danish King. For generations the monarchs made pomp and circumstance second to useful pursuits —architecture, or war, or farming. The present king competes with his meanest subject for prizes at shows and for prizes in the market—for butter. The State plays a more important part in the affairs of the nation than in any other in the world. It governs even the theatres and the church. The Parliament is much on the lines familiar to New Zealand. There is a Conciliation Board which works a good deal more smoothly than ours. The Old Age Pensions law is almost ideniieal with that of New Zealand, and the amount of pension, though only £8 10s, goes about as far as our- £26. Never, however, in their wildest socialistic dreams have the Danes gone so far as a system of lease in perpetuity. The Danish farmer, the most successful in Europe, thrifty, highly educated, and scientific in his methods, sticks to peasant proprietorship. A very socialistic institution makes Denmark a poor land for "lawyers—a poor Irian's Law Bureau, where advice is given free. - AII civil actions come before an arbitrator, before they are brought into Court, and only if his decision is not accepted is the action continued. The most democratic of'all the national institutions is the conscription for the-.army. At the age of 22. every man forsakes his office, lays down his spade, or gives up his social pleasures, to serve 21 months as a soldier, his identity lost in his number. So far carried that on <me occasion the Crown Prince was drawn for sentry duty outside his own palace, and had to present arms to his own empty carriage" as it was driven past. This service has'a fine effect- not only in levelling up social differences, but on the health of the people. . Deiunark has had free and compulsory education since. 1815, free not only in the primary, but in the secondary schools and universities also. And though: every part of the Government is in the hands of thepeople, they are content to leave the management of educational matters entirely to experts, with whom they do not interfere. The Danes are, next to the people of Saxony, the best educated people in the world. The classes are limited to 30 pupils each, and backward children are taught in auxiliary classes. An oculist and a dentist visit each school, to look after the children's eyes and teeth. The teachers'* of primary schools retire upon substantial pensions. The prizes given to children are of a curious nature ; for boys, a suit of clothes or a watch; for .girls', a chest of drawers (the latter because a girl cannot go out to service unless she has one). Agricultural science is taught in "rural high schools," of which there are 90 in the country. The only exacted in- connection with education is for materials needed in laboratory experiments. Men and women equally take degrees in the universities, except- that- women may not graduate in theology. They were admitted to the privilege of taking degrees - in. the same year as the change was made in New' Zealand. . ; .

Mr Alpers dealt at some length with the social ways of the people, with plenty of anecdotes by. way of illustration, and these were the piost amusing part of the lecture. In concluding his lecture, Mr Alpers said Denmark will never be effaced from the map, even though reduced to a few square miles behind the batteries of Eleinore, as she holds the key to the entrance to the Baltic. Whatever her political position, she is full' of intellectual vigour, and' retains her capacity for producing such men as Nils Gade, Oersted, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Hans Christian Andersen, and Von Moltke. The Danish peasant believed still in old Holger Danske. He sits in the lowest dungeon of Elsinore, asleep, his long beard rooted in the stone floor; and" when the national crisis comes "he will wake, and the shock of uprooting his beard from the stone, will shake the forts and send a thrill of patr—otic: fire through the nation. There have been dreadful happenings to Denmark that have caused old Holger Danske to no more than stir in his sleep. • Dire indeed must be the catastrophe that will rouse him ; but the people still have faith that "he is not; dead, but- sleepeth." The lecture was listened to with the greatest "attention, and at its conclusion Sir William Howe, chairman, and the Eev. A. E. Hunt, secretary, of the school committee, moved a hearty' vote of thanks to Mr Alpers. Hearty acclamation carried the compliment.